From quinn@fazigu.org Sat Sep 29 12:14:05 2001 Received: from (yami.57thstreet.com) [66.100.224.110] by requiem.netsville.com with smtp (Exim 3.32 #1 (Debian)) id 15nMke-0001Ky-00; Sat, 29 Sep 2001 12:14:04 -0400 Received: (qmail 68555 invoked by uid 1502); 29 Sep 2001 16:14:03 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO moo.ghostmoo.org) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 29 Sep 2001 16:14:03 -0000 Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2001 11:14:03 -0400 From: "Quinn@Ghostwheel" To: quinn@fazigu.org Subject: Ghostwheel Message(s) 50 - 53 from *storylines (#5236) X-Mail-Agent: Ghostwheel (moo.ghostmoo.org 6969) Message-Id: Status: RO Content-Length: 7894 Lines: 134 Message 50 from *storylines (#5236): Date: Wed Aug 8 00:18:23 2001 EDT From: Tikiaido (#24781) To: *storylines (#5236) Subject: Sick to the Soul The ease with which the human spine could break still managed to amaze Tiki, even after four years. A heel of a hand on his attendant's jaw, a hard push, and she was on the ground, groaning in pain and quick on the way to brain death before he even stopped ranting profanity. Suddenly, the difference between orange juice and grapefruit juice didn't seem so large. Minescule, really. Tiki was getting better, of course. His radiation sickness had subsided. Even the cancer was being treated, dispite his phenominal metabolism making it exponentially worse. He got up from the bed, looking down at the poor woman. He managed to get her head into a comfortable position, a neck brace on her. And he became the caretaker instead of the patient. Dakiron had given him a personal ... attendant. She was smart. Capable of carrying on a conversation with him for much longer than most people could stomach his disgusting presence. Tiki had developed a cancer on his face and neck, which his high metabolism made disgusting to behold and vomitous to smell. Somehow, it didn't seem to affect his caregiver, who had enough education to be more than a nurse, but not quite so much to be a surgeon or doctor. He didn't know what that was called. So, Tiki took care of her broken neck. Dakiron didn't have to know, did they? Of course they didn't. He would just act like he was still sick and couldn't recieve visitors. He HAD a caregiver in the first place instead of being in a Dakiron infirmary because they had come to realize that Tiki did not dig and build such an elaborate home because he was merely bored. And, for now, they respected it, letting him use it as a base of operations. Do good things for the company, they'll do good things for you, apparently. It was a new concept for him. He took care of the woman. She was afraid of him at first... such was to be expected. He'd lashed out and nearly killed her, after all. But it became clear by his actions that he was not out to do so... it was just a mistake. The cancer had so pervaded his face that he couldn't talk well. At first, she wouldn't let him get close enough to reach her with his constricted vocal cords. But he brought her food... he insisted she not move... at all. In the several weeks he took care of this woman, he'd saved her life, and he thought he'd saved himself from Dakiron's wrath. After all, if you make a mess, you should clean it up, right? Before anyone sees it and yells at you for it... But she HAD to tell him. She was duty-bound. It could cost her her job. Tiki couldn't convince her. It would probably cost him his life. He was just a recomb, after all. They could always make more. Tiki was surprised at the reaction of the man before him. A man in a black suit and a fedora, who had come to his house to "check up" on him. No, Tiki didn't have a choice as to whether or not to let him in, the man explained. Dakiron was worried about the caregiver, suddenly. What were they, psychic? Probably. But she was alright! And Tiki was the only reason for that. He had pleaded with the man, but he just shook his head and held up a hand at Tiki... and then, said something that completely caught Tiki off guard. "This is actually a good thing," he said solemnly. Tiki blinked in disbelief, the glow in his eyes dimming slightly. "What do you mean?" "Your actions show remorse, and a level of empathy you haven't shown since your original testing. In excess of some humans. You finally seem to have stabilized. You might just be sane. Or as close as anyone in this world comes anymore." His caregiver chimed in, "You were very gentle, responsive to the needs of an injured person... the way you were before, you'd probably have killed me and burried the body so no one would find out. This time, you still didn't want anyone to find out, but you wanted to fix it before they did. That shows remorse, rather than simply fear for your personal wellbeing as a result of your actions. You were actually sorry you'd done this. The overseers will be pleased. And I'm proud to say you'll make a full recovery physically as well." Tiki could only blink alot and say, "Thank you... I think." He didn't FEEL any different. He still felt like shit. In fact, he thought he may be sick, despite the good news. Cancer will do that to you. And he couldn't remember a time when he didn't have the constant headache that bothered him. He wondered idly if his mind would revert back to "normal" after he made the full physical recovery promised to him, or if he'd stay as he was now... all... soft, and feeling... vulnerable. He hated the feeling, and at the same time, he felt oddly... happy. The only cancer that remained was the stuff that was choking his vocal cords, and that probably wouldn't be long. Dakiron knew a lot about medical stuff... as near as Tiki could tell. Especially with their recombs. Curing cancer shouldn't be SO difficult. In any case, he'd be better than he was before. -------------------------- Message 52 from *storylines (#5236): Date: Tue Aug 14 18:47:51 2001 EDT From: Andi (#25000) To: *storylines (#5236) Subject: Returning "The landmarks of N'Orleans were starting to show on the horizon. Finally. Andi quickened her pace trying to get home. She could imagine all sorts of horrible things that could be waiting for her there when she got back. Afterall, last time she went away, granted that was a much longer time then this time, what she had returned to was much worse then she had hoped for. Oh why did she go? Her sister needed protecting and Andi was the only person that Andi trusted to do so. But what about him, said a little voice in her head. A sigh left Andi as she thought again of the reason she had suddenly left. He confused her. He almost frightened her. He made her nervous. But he also made her very happy and she always had a good time with him. While she was away she ran into some old friends of hers from her traveling days. Good enough friends that she could ask them their advice. What they told her gave her the drive to come back. Funny. Back in her traveling days she could not think of many reasons at all to stay here for long but now there were more reasons to stay. Her thoughts were interrupted by a sent thought from her owl, Kuari. Big two legged things ahead. Humans or monsters or humans that were basically monsters? Nothing to do but avoid them until she knew they were friendly. That will add another hour to the journey. Sigh. -------------------------- Message 53 from *storylines (#5236): Date: Wed Aug 29 20:57:18 2001 EDT From: Dexter (#14882) To: *storylines (#5236) Dexter peeled himself out of his stillsuit after spending months out in the wastes, seeking whatever artifacts might remain of the ancient world. Other than a bag full of odd pebbles, yellow crystals, dark gray stone and a strange brown metal he came back once again empty handed. Still there was some hope that he might find something. After the crawl down into New Genesis and the flight back to Real/Time he thought he spotted something different about the wastes through the port hole of the Banzai. A complex of some sort, dull in the sunlight, which quickly faded over the horizon. His tired legs complained about another walkabout through the wastelands of what used to be America but his curiousity was much stronger. When he finally made the long trek in the general location of the complex he was disappointed to find it was surrounded by a large metal fence that gave afforded him no view of what might lay beyond. Disappointed, he trudged back to Real/Time. Maybe if he got drunk enough he could figure out how to get in. --------------------------